David's Tangled Thoughts

After two days straight of not being able to use the touch interface on my phone, I said, “Fuck it,” and headed to Verizon to buy myself a BlackBerry Storm. I really did want to sit on it for a while considering the job situation is kind of scary right now and the Storm doesn’t have that great of reviews. One of my bosses and the comptroller asked for documentation on how I do some aspects of my jobs. Hmm… Uh huh. I grabbed my Alltel contract, my most recent bill, and my gift card and headed for the Verizon kiosk at the mall because I knew that they would be open at 7pm. Buying a phone there took a long time. They certainly didn’t do this at Alltel, but the supervisor that I was buying the phone from was doing everything he could possibly do for my phone making sure that I could walk away using it. I kind of wanted to give him a tip afterwards. So I’ve got an expensive little device. After all is said and done, I’ve only paid $50 since I had that gift card plus a rebate which I

There was series of attacks between the Palestinians and Israelis. A conversation from a television series I’ve seen comes to mind frequently: They are a dying people. We should let them pass. Who? The Narn or the Centauri? Yes.

I'm going on a vacation for a little while but I will try to check in every now and then.

At high noon at the United States Capitol, a transfer of power occurred and it was done quietly and beautifully to music. h/t newsstoryoftheday for posting this video

Tomorrow I will be at work sitting in the break room (with a Subway sandwich probably) listening to history being made.

Don't get me wrong, I like the original, but I like this cover even more: h/t to kemlye1 and, of course, David Sides assuming they are not the same person.

Chris Wallace had incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on his show, Fox News Sunday. Wallace asked, “Who do you work for? The President or the people?” Mr. Gibbs responded, “I work for both the president, the people and the working press of the United States of America.” It’s a nice safe answer because it covers the fact that he works for the president but it makes it appear more noble that he’s going to work for the people. I have no such idealism. Let’s imagine that I was in his position. I would have said, “I work for the President. He works for the people.” Although my intentions would be to serve the public, in the end I am not the one who is accountable to the people. The President is. I serve at his pleasure and my job is to help advance his agenda. If I have a problem with that, then I can resign. But let’s consider an idealism that I do hold to. While the President is the one I serve, he is secondary as I have already taken an oath. And while I no longe

I don’t know how many times I uttered that last night during the premier of season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica. Warning! If you haven’t seen the episode , you better not read any further. So last season, or rather the ending of the first half of this season, we saw the fleet and the allied cylons arrive at Earth only to find the place devastated with no signs of human life. This episode picked up right where we left off. Reports from teams around the world report the same thing: devastation, no living humans, and radiation. We learn that a nuclear holocaust occurred about 2000 years prior but something more interesting is found. They find human remains along with cylon-like machines. I say cylon-like because these toasters are not like the ones from the colonies. And perhaps the most interesting were that these humans weren’t really humans—they were also cylons. The Earthlings were skin jobs just like the final five and not the previous seven. Since Earth is not what they hoped

On my commute, there was a brilliant sunrise that was ringed with a faint rainbow. A column of light also rose up from the sun. By the time I neared work, the spectacle began to fade but you can get an idea of it from this. It is caused by suspended ice crystals.

The bitter cold has been causing schools to be canceled. According to this WNDU article , the YMCA of Michiana is offering a program to babysit kids. The fee is $30 and covers a range of activities. Personally, I think that it is a great idea. Of course, there are others who don’t. Teresa, a commenter from South Bend, provided this little gem: I believe $30 is alot for the whole day, since my son is already a member and I could drop him off for the day. We pay $18 a month for him to be a member and I'm not paying additional $30 for the day. I think the Y should provide lunch. My son loves going to the Y but I just can't afford paying a monthly fee and a daily fee. Am I understanding that she wants her son to be taken care of for 6 cents an hour? Really, let’s do the math. 18 dollars divided by 31 comes out to about 58 cents a day. 58 cents divided by 9 is about 6 cents. I wouldn’t watch her kid pick his nose for that kind of money. Is there anyone here who has kids tha

I got a call from my Aunt Lolita. This is my first mom’s elder sister. She’s considering buying a house back in San Fernando for ₱1.5 million. That’s about $36,000--about a 1/3 of the price of a decent house around where I live. Well… at least it used to be. It’ll be a while before she retires and I don’t know how willing her husband is to relocate there so I am a bit confused as to why she would want to buy a house although I guess you could say that it was an investment. She told me that I would be welcomed to stay there when I go back. I’ve thought about the possibility of retiring to the Philippines and I think that my mom would like to do so. Considering how far you can stretch the dollar there, it’s not a bad idea. I think it’s a good one but I don’t think that I could do it myself. Sure, I love the Phils but I think that I would miss the United States too much. Still, home is where you hang your hat, I guess.

We’ve been getting quite a bit of snow lately and it has been bitterly cold. Temps are below zero and factoring in the wind chill we’re going to about -20F. I, like most people, will go into work and bitch about the snow and how long it took me to drive there. Everyone does it and we all know it’s just bitching just to bitch. You share in their misery or sympathize for a moment and then you all move on. But--there are just some people that you just want throw into a snow bank. I really hate people who use up their allotted 3 minute weather complaint time. Seriously—we all get how crazy Michiana weather can be. If the always-wrong weatherman can complete his forecast in 3 minutes, why can’t they? It’s not that they want to declare that the weather sucks (which we all do) but they start talking about it as if this kind of weather is new to them or that Mother Nature has some sort of conspiracy to ruin their lives. There was a lady at lunch today that paced in front of the window

Luke and Noah finally hooked up. I haven't seen the pigs flying yet and Michigan hasn't sunk into the lakes.

You know how you can experience something that is so bad/wrong/awful and yet you still like it on the whole? First up (because it is not as fun as the second) is the Motorola Aura. Motorola has taken $50 phone and repackaged it in an “exquisite” body to sell for $2,000USD. Insanity. And yet, it is appealing. Let’s see if I was insanely rich and sociable, this would be my going-out cell phone. Kind of like you have a rugged every day watch and a nicer dress up watch. My favorite parts of these Aura vids are where they talk about the features. It makes me wonder if they are talking to me as if I never owned a phone before, if they’re trying to cover up the fact that this phone has pathetic features, or both. For example, the following had me howling in laughter: “Here’s another hidden gem: to bypass all the menus and simply return to the home screen it only takes one step—press the red “End” key. That’s it. One press. Viola! You’re back at the home screen.” Then we have this co

A little while ago the BBC announced that actor Matt Smith will replace David Tennant as the new Doctor Who. Most of the other Whovians that I am aware of in the blogosphere don’t approve and neither to do I. Whatever happened to middle aged Time Lords? This guy is freaking younger than I am! It’s not really that much of a problem for me as I gave up on that series a while ago. I only lasted until midway of the second season of the Tennant run so this is just another addition to the pile of disappointments this revamped series has given me. Even though the old series (and I’m talking about Doctors 1-7) suffered from cheesy…everything, I thought it was so much better story wise. And what the hell, what is with Time Lords regenerating younger and younger these days? Must be another case of Benjamin Button. <<--See also: " Dematerialize the TV Set "

This morning I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show —what, are you that surprised I listen to NPR ? Sheesh. Anyways, I was listening to Diane as she had an interesting topic— Sesame Stree t. Actually, Diane had on Michael Davis, the author of “ Street Gang ” which is about the history of Sesame Street. It was incredibly fascinating as I never knew what happened behind the show so this was great. The few audio flashbacks got me singing, especially C is for Cookie . A particular stand out was when Davis read a bit out of the book where he reenacted a scene with Big Bird who had to deal with Mr. Hooper’s death. Yes. I was a Sesame Street watcher but I don’t remember it being a part of too much of my childhood as I watched it when I was really young—like 3 or 4. By the time I was five, I outgrew it. I can’t vouch for Sesame Street’s value in my education. I honestly don’t think that I learned my letters and numbers from that show. I don't learn topics when they are presented

The results of this past election are not yet settled. The 111th Congress began yesterday but members will not meet until Tuesday when they will be sworn in and the first session begins. As it stands right now, Senator Clinton's seat is still being occupied by her until she resigns for her office to become Secretary of State. The Minnesota seat is still being contested between incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken. At first, Sen. Coleman appeared to have won the election but a recount has, so far, found Al Franken to be the actual winner. It is expected that the Coleman campaign will continue to challenge through the courts. That leaves us with Sen. (or rather, President-Elect) Obama’s open seat that disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to fill by appointing former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. Blago’s appointment is extremely interesting to me. I mean, this is the kind of political drama that I love. The governor, early last month, was arrested

I put those new soup crocks to good use by making French onion soup. Despite being a little sweet for my liking, I think it was a great success. What's even better is that I did it without bothering with a cook book. I figure that it would be hard to mess up. Here's what I did: Cooked down 3 large onions (2 red, 1 white) with two cloves of garlic and little bit of olive oil. Once it was a nasty pile of caramelized goo, I put in a few splashes of white wine and cooked it down again. Then added 6 cups of beef broth. Heated to boil and then ladled it into the individual crocks with bread and mozzarella cheese forming a "lid." Broiled it for a few minutes and voila: a simple and tasty dinner.